Forget the fall, I'll catch you
by The unwritten promise
Summary: He went in there alone, and he found Axel; the one person he never wanted to see again for as long as he lived. But when things begin to go wrong - drastically wrong - he finds himself needing Axel more than ever before. (Warning's inside.)
1. Prologue

It started out innocent enough.

We were friends. Nothing more. And people never questioned the strong bond of our friendship. They never questioned the late night movies or the long days out that I never wanted to end – not really. Because we were friends. Nothing more. From time to time a nosy neighbour would stick their head over the fence or ring the doorbell at an odd hour to try and catch us out. But we were always too clever for them…or, at least, he was, anyway. He always threw them of our scent. Because he was clever like that. Smart, cocky, a little abrasive and utterly sarcastic – a bastard in every sense. But he was oh so addictive and those damn eyes would have me succumbing to his every whim like a puppy following its master.

I hated myself for that. For feeling as if I loved him when I knew more than anything that I needed him. And I hated him more for making me feel like that. But every time I would find the strength to get mad at him he would disappear; fading from my grasp and alluding me. Sometimes he would leave for hours…sometimes days. He said he liked to keep me on my toes; keep me guessing. '_Because that's what life's for, Rox. Gotta keep guessing if you ever wanna get the answer, yanno?' _

Bastard.

I hate him for that, too. For making me remember every damn word he said to me. Every damn lie is freaking etched across my memory like a scar I can't get rid of. Why? Because he told me to make sure I had it all memorized. Because this is Axel, and when Axel tells you to do something, you do it. No matter what that something is.

I don't exactly know when things became complicated. I can't pinpoint the exact day it happened. Rather my life jumps and starts like a broken video tape and I'm left trying to capture the moment with the pause button on the damn remote. When he left that night, and he walked out the door yelling at me as I shouted back, I didn't think, when he said he was leaving; that he was never coming back…

I didn't think he meant it.

At first I didn't care. I was blinded by rage at him lying again. But when the hours ticked on, and they kept on ticking without him, I started to realise something was wrong. Axel had been gone for longer periods of time before, sure…but we'd had such a big fight. It's almost funny, I can't remember what it was even over anymore – we were just kid's, you know? Dumb teenagers looking to get laid and drink booze because we were invincible and our lives and love could never end. What a fucking idiot I was for believing that.

The day's ticked on into weeks. And the weeks became months. I moped for so long, and some nights, if I concentrate real hard, I can still feel the hole in my heart where he stabbed me. People noticed; as nosy bastards always do. And they would ask questions. It was to be expected, I suppose. We had been friends for so long people began to wonder where my looming shadow had fled. Thing is, I had no answer to give them. And that hurt. That hurt real bad. So I lashed out. I lost everything in one foolish decision. And it was because of him.

Axel never did come back. I tried his number, left him the odd text and a voicemail, but he never answered. In the end I gave up trying. I couldn't push myself any harder. Not for someone who didn't care enough to pick up the phone. Something inside me broke a little – and I never really managed to fix it. Sure, people tried. I've met others since then. But that's all they were – others. They weren't him, so I could never become attached. Eventually I clung to someone, or rather, they to me. We aren't '_in love'_, but we're pretty damn close.

Eventually, I began to move on; slowly. And after a while the hole in my heart began to stitch itself back up. I moved away, put myself through college and managed to work myself up in a respectable law enforcement career where I have a stable job and a steady pay check…but I still miss it; the thrill Axel gave me. With him life was always an adventure, a dangerous route to be taken and a puzzle to be solved. Sometimes, when I'm alone, I reflect on the memories of him I have, and it irks me to think that in some ways he always knew me a little bit better than myself. As if that's possible.

I'm turning twenty one this fall and I'm still not sure who I am. I'm starting to feel as if I'm already in a mid-life crisis. I should be enjoying my youth! Living it up to the max and still insisting it be turned up! Instead I have to move down to stable Twilight Town to complete my new assignment for my stable job whilst my stable boyfriend stays in the big city without me.

But life wasn't through punching me in the heart just yet. Because life's a bitch and God is cruel, fate threw Axel at me once more, and with him came the emotional baggage I've been dragging behind me for the past four years, a murder mystery with a side of danger and devotion, and a whole tonne of issues. Because Axel was always complicated, and I never could quite figure him out, even though I'm pretty sure he understood every crevice of me.

I suppose I should rewind a bit and fill you in on the small details that make a story what it is. I guess it started on the first day of spring when I was driving down to my new home in Twilight Town…if I'd have known what awaited me in that small bastard town I would have turned my car around right then and there on that motorway and refused point blank to even enter the fucking place. But I didn't know, and I did enter, and from that moment on every piece of my stable little world was ripped down. I became a part of something much bigger than I could ever have anticipated.

And it was all _his_ fault.

* * *

Hope anyone who read enjoyed :) I know, I shouldn't be starting another fic ^_^'' sorry

Main pairings - Akuroku, Soriku, Cleon, Zemyx and maybe more - if you don't like any of these pairings please don't read. No flames please.


	2. Twilight Town

I arrived in Twilight Town at approximately two am on a Sunday – not exactly the best start to my new career pathway – and it was pitch black outside. The lights of my small red bust up car were trying their hardest, but it wasn't much better than the glow of the dull streetlamps that lined the path of the small quiet town. When I first got off the motorway I ended up a little lost. This place is just turnings, alleyways, shortcuts and bends; there's no _real _road, you know? Most places have two or three major linkages in and out of the city, but this place was more like a spider web than anything else, and it had taken me the best part of forty minutes to find the right road that I was supposed to be down.

Never mind, I'm here now, I suppose. Even though I was supposed to arrive at eight pm sharp. I stopped the car, turned off the engine and just sat in the darkness for a moment, looking around. The street was quiet, eerily quiet, and there was something about the flickering lights outside that seemed to haunt me. Frowning, I double checked the small business card I had been given, not that it was a business card. In fact, card would be a perfect way to describe it. Yeah, just plain old ordinary card that an official bloke in black back in my old office had given me after scribbling some insanely neat address down across the back of it.

_241 Lunevel Lawn, South End, Twilight Town_

_8pm sharp. Don't be late. _

That's it. Everything the note said. I tossed it over into the empty passenger seat and looked out across from me. The sign definitely read Lunevel Road, and this was definitely South End (I had unfortunately had to subject myself to getting directions from an all-night takeout drive through and had been forced into buying a greasy burger I had immediately disposed of before they would tell me the correct route). The road is so narrow that no two cars would be able to pass abreast, like many of the other roads in this cursed little place. On one side is a row of houses, all of them boarded up with smashed windows and lingering glares, and the flickering light of the streetlight is nothing if not creepy and in desperate need of fixing. But none of them are house number 241…and on the other side there's nothing but an underused bowling green…

I couldn't help the sigh that passed my lips as my fingers came up to pinch the bridge of my nose. I am so tired. I've been driving straight for the best part of ten hours, my eyes feel like they're about to explode in my head, my arse is numb and starting to sting, and there's a pounding headache in my skull from all the bright lights I've passed on my way down here. Needless to say, this Saturday/Sunday sucks.

I undid my seatbelt with a soft _click _and stepped out of the car, wanting to stretch my legs if nothing else and leave the small cramped compartment I had been confined to. I wouldn't mind it normally, but the thing is, that's not my car. It's my boyfriends, and boy was he pissed when I took it. Or he will be when he finds out in a couple of hours when he can't get to work, at least. My own car is in a garage back in the city getting repaired. Why…? Let's just say there was an accident. It's kind of the truth. Anyway, the problem with Hayner's car is exactly that. It's Hayner's car. The smell of the air freshener hanging over the mirror is identic to his, the nicotine gum he had tried lays discarded and stuck in the ashtray, coffee stains mark both the driver and passenger seats, and the unforgiving hole in the middle of the back seats is a constant reminder of the time he fell asleep and almost set us both alight accidentally. This car, this little piece of scrap metal that I have 'borrowed', is a constant reminder of him… and just lately I'm not too sure what me and Hayner are.

The air was slightly colder than I expected outside, but I welcomed it all the same. Slamming the red door closed on all of the memories I had wanted to leave behind in the big city, I leaned over the bonnet and looked out over the bowling green as the light behind me flickered, died, resuscitated itself, and began flickering once more. Another boring routine I had managed to find in life.

The field is only lit halfway in the centre by a large upstanding amount of light being cast down from a distant football pitch on the back area. I guess there's an extra park built onto the back of it or something. Might be worth a look into later if I'm staying a while, I guess. The lights flickered behind me once more and I glanced over my shoulder to catch it. There was something by those houses, something locked in the darkness, and it was driving me insane. I knew it was there…my instinct told me so. And the day I mistrust that is the day I'll walk out into the middle of a heaving road to stand in front of a ten tonne lorry.

These houses, they seem to cluster, one always overshadowing the other even though all of them are on the same length and of the same height. The light never seemed to touch them, and from where I glanced in my half dazed stupor with blurry eyes and an aching neck, the boarded up windows and doors seemed to manifest into looming lethargic eyes and a large mouth with splintered teeth. I shook my head to rid myself of the thought and straightened up, turning to face the abandoned houses completely as the empty relics stared on.

"Who's there?!" I shouted, my body tensing as my voice raced out only to echo back to me with a slight tremble I don't remember pronouncing.

At first I thought myself mad. I mean, here I was by the edge of the road in my boyfriend's 'borrowed' car, commanded down to a new city by a random official I don't know and wasn't given the name of, and now I'm talking to houses…? Maybe I should apply for a vacation or some sick leave. I was squinting through the darkness at each house, about to give up before a glint in a shadowed alleyway three houses down caught my eye.

My hand immediately went around to the back of my jeans, slipping under my white jacket to pull free the gun that hid there. I slowly pulled it around, my eyes never leaving the small glint in the shadows as I cocked the gun sideways and let my fingers slip against the trigger. There was definitely something there. Whether it was a cat or a regular run of the mill psychopath I couldn't tell you. But knowing good old boring Twilight Town, I'd place my money on the cat.

Footsteps where the next thing I recognised, so maybe I wasn't entirely right about the cat. I straightened the gun and shouted again. "I said who's there?!"

And this time a voice answered.

"You really shouldn't be waving that weapon around in a civil area, Roxas. You're going to get us both into a lot of trouble."

The voice was cold and calm, slightly uncaring and completely monotone. It was the type of voice that belonged to horror movies, to the enraged and often lunatic mass murder who was in all senses the evil villain. And I recognised it. Typical, the owner of the sadistic voice who was stalking me in the shadows was a voice I recognised. Doesn't that just spit out the truth of the company I keep?

The owner of the voice stepped out under the broken lights, and I felt the groan pass my lips before my brain registered I was speaking. I knew the man before me. He was blond, his hair spiked up in a similar fashion to mine, his eyes were a startling blue that put my own to shame, and his skin was as pale as the moon. He held himself with a glare, a scowl, and an air of destructive and reckless authority and brooding passion, the kind that could only come from a lifetime of putting life on the edge down to nothing but the choice of cards God had given him. And he was seven years older than me, meaning he was on the verge of his birthday and by the way he was striding towards me with that indented scowl he was also on the verge of beginning one of his classic lectures.

I rolled my eyes, tucking my gun in the back of my jeans once more as if it were an ordinary item to carry, which, up in the city, it kind of is. "Cloud, I'm really not-"

"You were supposed to be down here hours ago. What took you so long?"

Raising an eyebrow, I watched as he stopped in front of me and folded his arms across his chest. "How the hell would you know?"

Cloud's cold eyes hardened, but I wasn't moving on my stance. I've seen that look many times before, and the trick with Cloud is to never give him an inch. If you give him an inch in anything he'll take a mile. Not because he's greedy, but because he can, and he'll use that same mile to wrap about your throat. Trust me, I'm his little brother and even I didn't receive a 'get out of jail free' card from his stone heart.

"That doesn't matter."

"Of course it matters! I've just been dragged down from my home to take a job down here, and now you're here, and you know about it? And you never said a damn thing?!" The words fell from my mouth so fast I forgot to breathe until the last second. "Cloud, what the hell is going on?"

"Too much to be explained on an open road." Without waiting for my answer he passed me, walked up to Hayenr's car and kicked the tires. The glance he shot my way was one of mild sympathy. "This your ride? What happened to-"

"I got in an accident." I mumbled, eager to cut him off as I sank my hands down deep into my pockets. I nodded in the direction of the tin on wheels. "This is Hayner's."

"Hayner…? That kid you're with? Thought you finished with him already?"

I shrugged. "Love's a rocky road."

Cloud scoffed, and it irritated me slightly that after six long years of little to no contact he thought he could openly chastise me like we were little children again. "You think you've ever been in love?"

"More times than you! When was the last time you actually got a date that wasn't a one night stand, huh?"

Cloud's nose wrinkled and I knew I had hit a nerve. Cloud, and all of his relationships that I had heard about from our shared younger sibling, where disasters. He moved away when we were still kids, and ever since he had focused on nothing more than his career. It had worked for him. Last I heard he was some major FBI agent hiding out down south after a major top secret mission…so what was he doing in quiet little Twilight Town.

"To be honest with you, Roxas, I have a partner. And I'm doing alright…I'm getting by."

I frowned, watching as he kicked at the tire once more. Cloud was never the type to wallow in memories or sulk on the past…but there was something slightly lost in his tone and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. It irked me even more than his scowl. We had never really seen eye to eye as brothers. We were always there in one way or another, I suppose, but Christmas holidays and birthdays had become a disaster to the point where our parents would refuse to allow both of us to enter the house together. It was always one or the other, and yeah, it was wrong, but that's how they dealt with the situation. In the end it brought up more walls between us as brothers, and contact sort of drifted, especially after I moved north to set my life back on track and he fled south.

As the silence continued I realised dumbly that I had no way of understanding how to deal with my brother's despair. So I clenched my fists and struck out once more. "Not exactly living, then? What happened to you being the big shot FBI agent? You know, the favourite prestigious son and all?"

I waited for him to snap and rise to the bait, but he didn't. Instead he became quieter, darker, and through it I knew something was wrong. Cloud had called me up here, that much was for certain, but there were still so many questions that remained unanswered for me, and his silence brought up all of the old tension I had buried when my family had made the decision to separate us for the good of our younger brother as our violent outbursts were bad for him and his education. Not that I have anything against my parents or Sora for what they put us through, but I wish they would have looked for more options. Tried more routes, you know?

"What? You fuck up, or something?"

Cloud sighed, his shoulders going back before he turned to me and his cold front returned to mask the broken bird I had just seen. "Never mind. It's not something I should be telling you-"

"I'm your damn brother, Cloud!" I whispered, unable to find the strength to scream at him as the bitter words stung and my fingers itched to reach behind me and fetch my gleaming metal friend.

He thought for a moment, looked me up and down, and shook his head. "Let's go… we can't talk here and the others are waiting back at the base."

"Base?" He walked away from me and my confused glare. "What base? What others? Hey! Where are you going?"

He never turned around as he headed back into the shadows and I felt stupid standing there alone. Rubbing my arm, I cursed openly, looked up and down the empty street and cast a sour look over into the darkness of the bowling green.

"You coming?! Or do you want to stay by the light so Dickey Dark won't bite you?!"

Growling, I opened the car door, pulled out my phone and stormed after my brother, hating my predicament more and more as I chased Cloud into the darkness. Jumping the broken picket fence, I gave one uneasy look back behind me to the tiny red vehicle in the light. Something didn't feel right…even if it was Cloud who was leading me away. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd trust the guy with my life even though we don't get on, but there's a strange feeling in my gut, something I can't quite place…

"For God's sake, Roxas! I do want to go home sometime tonight, yanno!"

Pulling my eyes away, I wandered down the side track between the two houses, ducking beneath the gap in the fence and fading into the black nothing that waited ever so patiently for me to join it, cursing Cloud under my breath once more.

* * *

Hope anyone who read enjoyed. Oh, and don't panic - yes Roxas and Hayner are a couple to start of with in this, and if you don't like that's cool, but I don't plan on making it intricate and detailed. It'll make more sense when written :)

Also, I know Cloud and Roxas are cold, but give me chance to warm up, 'kay? They do have backgrounds and reasons for this :)


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